courtyards

This half-timbered French Gothic style home was built by W. M. Chappell after the style of his grandfather’s home in France. Chappell was one of the first men at the gold strike at Eldorado Creek in Alaska. He returned to Seattle with his stake and founded Rainier Heat & Power Company. The house was designed by Edgar Matthews and completed in 1906.

The De la Mar was built at the east end of West Olympic Place, as a private hotel for the Kinnear’s’ guests. It opened in 1909, in time for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.

De la Mar Apartments, 2007

De la Mar Apartments, 2007

The style is neo-Classical, based on a Florentine villa that Kinnear saw on his travels. Its formal courtyard features a pond and a marble statue. The facade has three-story terra cotta pilasters topped by fluted capitals. A highly ornamented frieze and cornice edge the building, topped by a terra cotta balustrade. Windows are highly detailed. There are 39 units, averaging over 1,000 square feet each. …Continue reading “De la Mar Apartments – 115 W Olympic Pl”→

Fred Anhalt, Seattle’s best known apartment builder, designed 1320 Queen Anne Avenue in his more typical Tudor style. Anhalt aimed to be different from other developers by creating large individualized units that people could consider permanent homes. He particularly wanted to avoid the long hallways that he said reminded him of tenements. His “apartment homes” were refuges distinguished by their size, quality detailing, landscaping and charm, built for people who did not want to own property, but could afford the best.

His most typical styles were Tudor and Norman French courtyard apartments, which became very popular. They featured such details as leaded or stained glass, turrets, fireplaces, beamed ceilings, and elaborate brickwork. Anhalt considered a nice view important, home, so he developed attractive courtyards as a practical way to achieve this pleasant outlook: “I could make things look the way I wanted them to, that way, which is hard to do when you’re dealing with a view of Mount Rainier or Puget Sound.” The typical approach was through a landscaped courtyard, with entrances leading to two or three units. The plantings and privacy make going home a pleasant transition from the outside world. …Continue reading “Anhalt Apartments – 1320 Queen Anne Ave”→